Of the 44 men who have served as President of the United States, 31 have stopped in Rochester before, during or after their term of office. And two more sailed by within a few miles.

Today, Talkeris pleased to present the Presidential Visits Series in its entirety. (BELOW) While new information undoubtedly will be added, the Series now represents the most comprehensive list and detailed reports of presidential visits to Rochester, bar none.

The series began in 2015 with a trip to Magnolia’s on Park Avenue in search of memorabilia displayed from President Barak Obama’s August 22nd, 2013 lunch break during his western New York bus tour. Back in 2015, I had the Obama Special: Soup and Grilled Cheese Sandwich.

While researching and creating the series is a labor of love, it isn’t always easy. Until now, there has been no single source of information. The site Rochester N.Y. – Today in History: A historical journal of life in Rochester, NYis a valuable resource but has many omissions. The digital D & C archives are invaluable but cumbersome. Alas, the archives don’t have search mechanisms that easily recover relevant articles. The D & C and Times Union print clippings held in the Local History room at the Rochester Central Library attest to the diligence and commitment of generations of newspaper clippers, but are, alas, limited. And researching old newspapers via old fashioned microfilm is interesting but time consuming.

For example, all we know about President William McKinley’s 1897 visit is from a single reference in a 1976 D & C article. Although McKinley’s visit was only three minutes, we are including him as a sitting president. (McKinley also made a lengthy stop in 1892.)

Democrat and Chronicle, November 1, 1976

At the same time, all those visits to the Local History Room were made easier and more pleasurable by librarians Jay Osbourne, Emily Morry and Brandon Fess who provided invaluable historical background on local newspapers and Reconstruction.

Special thanks goes to Alex White, owner of Boldo’s Armory. Alex kindly accepted my request that he read four presidential memoirs, each written before the men became president: Eisenhower’s Crusade over Europe (1948), Nixon’s Six Crises (1962), Reagan’s Where’s the rest of me? (1965) and Carter’s Why Not the Best? (1976). Alex provided many historical and political insights, especially for Eisenhower’s 1952 campaign stop.

Half the fun are the photo-op field trips: The old aqueduct on the Broad Street Bridge, Exchange Street, James Monroe High School, Mt. Hope Cemetery, Washington Square Park, the railroad bridge at the Inner Loop and Mill Street, Theodore Roosevelt School #43, Adlai Stevenson School # 29, the Northstar Christian Academy, Wilson Magnet High School, Temple B’rith Kodesh, the War Memorial, Monroe Community College, the Rochester Institute of Technology, the Kenneth B. Keating Federal Building, the Vietnam Veteran’s Walk of Honor in Highland Park, the University of Rochester, Magnolia’s and Scottsville Road near the airport.

Rochester in 1853 at the time of Fillmore’s visits. Reproduced in 1973 by HISTORICAL URBAN PLANS, Ithaca, New York from a lithograph in the Cornell University Library. This is number 208 of an edition limited to 500 copies. [Owned by David Kramer]

The Rochester Garfield, McKinley and Harrison would have encountered. Birdseye view, 1880 by Beck & Pauli. Owned by Matt DeLaus and displayed at Earth Day events on Parcel 5, April 22nd, 2018 [Photo: David Kramer]

Election Day, 2016. Note: the photo of me holding the ballot sleeve does not technically violate New York Election Law § 17-130(10) as I did not show my completed ballot. The state law makes it a misdemeanor for any voter to show their ballot “after it is prepared for voting, to any person so as to reveal the contents,” or for anyone to solicit a voter to show their ballot after it’s been prepared. The logic is that such a prohibition prevents people from selling their vote and being able to prove that they did so.

My vote: # 104 at this machine. Election Monitor Jim Harald kindly took the photo and gave me an “I Voted” sticker.

1. After reviewing the series, Nighan commented:

Everyone seems to be covered. Democrats, Republicans, Democratic-Republicans, Whigs, Know Nothings, and monarchists. I’m pretty sure we have all visits by incumbent presidents covered. But I suspect that, given the transportation network (Rochester being on one of the two main railroadroutes from the west to NYC and DC, albeit the lest direct route) and the proximity of the scenic delights of Niagara Falls for those traveling from the east, a few future presidents (such as Garfield) and some ex-presidents (Hayes and Arthur seem the likeliest) may have passed through Rochester without making a splash. I’ll keep checking. I must admit though that the comprehensive-looking list of presidential visits issued by the Association for a Buffalo Presidential Center doesn’t have a record of visits by those three either. Seems difficult to believe that every president from Cleveland to Trump has stopped here at one time or another, but during Rochester’s boom town days after the completion of the Erie Canal, and while New York was the most populous state in the Union, so many past/future presidents ignored us.

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